Spotlights

The Obama administration on Monday joined a long list of higher-education associations, civil-rights groups, and other organizations in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold race-conscious admission policies in a case involving the University of Texas at Austin.

Justice Johnson Would be the Court’s First African-American Chief Justice

New York, New York—The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) filed a friend of the court brief in Chisom v. Jindal, in support of claims that Justice Bernette Johnson is next in line to succeed the current chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court, becoming the first African-American chief justice.

On Oct. 10, the justices will hear arguments in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, in which a rejected white applicant to the school challenges the admissions practices, which include race as a factor.

It will be the first time since a 2003 case involving the University of Michigan that the high court will take up the issue. In that case, the Supreme Court said the school did not violate the Constitution's equal protection provision by using race in its admissions decisions.

Today the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (“LDF”) is filing an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to preserve diversity and opportunity in America’s colleges and universities.

For Cris Rubio, there wasn't much suspense about what came after he graduated high school in 2003. Rubio had been second in his class for much of his four years — he eventually finished fourth — and under the Texas Top Ten Percent Plan, any student in the top 10 percent of their high school class, by grade-point average, was given automatic admission to any state public university.